Council - Regular Meeting

It is 6:30. I'll call this meeting the St. Mary's City Council to order. Roll call, please. Here. Lond here. Chrisman. Here. Here. Aquo. Gillan here. All right. Please join Pastor Tim in a brief prayer. Let's pray. God, we're so very grateful that you've given us the chance to meet together here this evening. We pray God for the decisions the councils are going to make. the items you're going to consider. We ask your blessing upon all of us, God, that together we may be able to move this city closer to your will. For we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You all received a copy of the minutes of the last meeting. Are there any questions or comments from council? If not, may I have a motion to accept, please, Mr. Buff, Mr. Luns? All vote, please. All yeses. Next under petitions and communications, we have a resolution uh number 202605. We're going to low odd sequence here. I understand that. So, may I have a motion to read resolution 2605? Mr. Cher, Mr. Gillan, all vote, please. All yeses. Resolution 202605, a resolution of appreciation to John Maker. Whereas John Maker began employment with the city of St. Mary's as a refuge worker one in the solid waste department on December 9th, 1993 and was promoted within the department to a refuge worker two on April 25th, 1994. And whereas on March 13, 1995, John was promoted to laborer three in the water and sewer department and later became a plumber one on June 10th, 1996. And whereas John transferred to general services as a general service worker one on September 30th, 1996, and worked his way through the department becoming foreman on February 8th, 1999. John was a foreman until he was promoted to assistant superintendent of general services on April 1st, 2015 and served

in that capacity until he was subsequently promoted to superintendent of general services on April 1st, 2016 where he served until his retirement on January 30th, 2026. Whereas John faithfully and cont conscientiously served the city of St. Mary's and its citizens for 32 years. Now therefore be resolved by council for the city of St. Mary's Ohio that John Maker is hereby recognized and commended for his many years of dedicated service to the city of St. Mary's and that John and that the clerk of council is hereby direct to provide a copy of this resolution to John Maker. May I have a motion to pass please? Miss Buchanan, Mr. Lums, all vote.

All yeses. Thank you. Congratulations. THANK YOU. [applause]

THANK YOU. Thanks for the recognition. It's been a quick 32 years and the last 10 have been great working with Greg and Joe and got a lot of good people been working with. So, uh, keep them around and everything will go good. That's all I got. Thank you. [applause]

We'll stay a little bit longer.

All right. Next agenda we have vacation council for art convention here. Thank you.

Thank you for letting me come speak, mayor, council members. Um, my name is Mitchell and I live in item. We're going to just turn the mic on. Sorry.

Thank you. Um, again, my name is Brenda Mitchell. I live in uh Belfton, Ohio, and I'm speaking here today on behalf of Convention of States. So, um, I'll begin. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you in behalf of an organization called Convention of States. I'm requesting your support of Ohio State Resolution HJR2 and SJR3 currently in the committee. You should have copies of HJR2, the second staple in the packet. This involves creating a St. Mary's non-binding resolution backing these measures using Wesville's resolution as a guide. This is included in the packet. Also, Wesville [clears throat] was the first among several dozen other Ohio municipalities to take this action so far. Once adopted, if you choose to do so, I respectfully request you to send an official letter of support to state representative King and State Senator Sus Manchester encouraging passage. Templates of these letters are included in your package as well. So, let's go over it just a little bit. Um, let's review the highlighted Ohio State resolution to understand what I'm asking you to support. On the first page of the resolution, joint resolution, it clearly defines the purpose of the document. The application to the Congress of the United States for a convention of the states under article five of the Constitution of the United States that is limited to proposing amendments that impose fiscal restraints on our federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of our federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and members

of Congress. Notice in the first whereas statement on page one that the constitution was designed to empower the state legislators to be the guardians of our liberty and that the rule of law is sacred to those who legislate. On page two, you can see the process for the convention being described as a binding legal document with legal ramifications if not exercised as defined. The Ohio General Assembly is requesting that Congress amend the convention under article five of the US Constitution for the three specific approved topics. Please note that twothirds of the states must agree to the exact same topics listed in their respective resolutions and that Congress's role is only to call the convention for the states. setting a time and place. And on page three, the resolution specific specifically calls out that the role of Congress does not have power or authority on how the amendment convention will be exercised. Each state legislature consoles its delegates and the state resolutions agree that each state has one vote towards any proposed amendment that would eventually be considered for ratification by the states. It's very important to notice that the last paragraph clearly states that the delegates are legally bound to not change any provision of the bill of rights nor any other part of the existing constitution for that matter. Any proposed amendments will be subject to a future state ratification process revi requiring vote approval by three quarters of the states for adoption. States control the delegates with the power to recall them for breach of duty

or a violation of the instructions provided. Finally, the proposed local non-binding resolution from the village of Wainsville Council was reviewed by the law director prior to its adoption. The sentiment of this local resolution reflects the views of our organization as well as my own and I strongly encourage you to adopt [cough] the last page which is the the Wingsville. It's a copy of the Wingsville resolution and um reviewed by the law director's adoption. And the Senate amendment of this local resolution reflects the views of our organization as well as my own. And I strongly encourage you to adopt it by simply updating the last page to reference our state representative Angela King and our state senator Susan Manchester before adoption. If you decide to adopt our non-binding resolution, um electronic copies of the village of Wesville resolution and the adoption letter templates can be provided to you. Um, thank you for your time and consideration and you have any questions, I'd be very happy to answer any of them.

Are there any questions or comments from council? Thank you, Mr. One more thing. This last the third page of this this last thing give some information about um how many people within a file alone uh 82% of Republicans and 69% of Democrats and 82% of independents think uh calling a convention of states would be a great thing for our nation. How special do you have any ignoring those? Uh, I have a few couple.

Okay. Uh, Miss Sver and Miss Miller are from the local media here. You may want to give them warm.

Thank you, Mr. Harris. I met Miss Mitchell in WA Canada and I can just let council know that Waffle Canada is considering this for the council. Salina Petta and Greenville. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda we have is Christina Morris. Morris, you have the floor, please.

Good evening. Uh my name is Christina Morris. Uh thank you for a few minutes of your time on the floor this evening. Um I am Alaz County born and raised. I'm actually originally from St. Mary's. I uh was born here, started at West School, went to Holy Rosary, but I ultimately graduated from New Brmond. I'm here to tell you a little bit about myself tonight. But before I talk about myself, I really want to um inform everyone and let everybody know what's happening in Auglaz County in the spring of 2026 and in November of 2026. Aug Allay County is going to elect the new common police court judge. Currently, we have a judge Mark E. Spees that has been sitting on the bench in Auglaz County since 1994. Unfortunately, due to age restrictions under Ohio law, once you reach the age of 70, you cannot run for reelection. Uh so this position will be up in 2026 for Alice County to choose a new uh common police court judge. This common police court um position holds three divisions. So it's a very expansive and very big court. It holds a probate division. It holds the juvenile court division and the domestic relations division. The probate division handles cases like adoptions, guardianships for minors and adults. It probates wills and estates. Um, handles trust litigation and numerous other jurisdictional issues under the probate court. It also does juvenile court. And juvenile court is your most vulnerable families here in Alaz County, which is your child protective services cases, your CPS cases, your juvenile delinquency cases. It handles every single child custody and child support case for every child born out of wedlock or not during a marriage. And it sees those cases back until those children reach the age of 18 or emancipate in some way. It also holds a domestic relations division. And the domestic relations division is your divorces, your disillusions. It divides marital estates at the end of a marriage and it

[cough and clears throat] it handles every single child custody and child support case for children born in a marriage. and we'll see those cases back until those two children reach the age of majority either through change in circumstances or um conflict of families. And it also handles uh domestic violence protection orders. Those are emergency domestic violence uh protection orders uh for domestic violence in our community. So, as you can see, it's a very expansive court. It handles three divisions. And so it's very important that we uh choose a judge that is uh very averse in not only this law but children and families because this court ultimately handles how we uh operate dayto-day from birth to death. Um to tell you more about myself as I stated I was originally from St. Mary's. I graduated from New Breamman. Following my graduation I went down to the University of Cincinnati where I obtained a bachelor's degree and a teaching certification. and I became an elementary school teacher. My time as a teacher and through my studies, I learned a lot about children and development and um unfortunately as a elementary school teacher um a levy wasn't passed and I lost my job. It's called reduction and force or you got ripped. It was a union so last in first out I lost my job as a teacher. I took that motivation and went to law school to continue my work for children and families. I went to law school at the University of Dayton. While in law school, I had a number of jobs. My first job was working in the federal court system. I worked under a federal magistrate judge in down in Cincinnati handling hay cases. And hay cases are essentially when two countries are fighting over the doicile or where a child will live. And then I spent two years as a law clerk in the McGomery County Juvenile Court and McGomery County is Dayton, Ohio. I worked directly under a juvenile court judge and wrote all of his permanent custody cases, which permanent custody cases are when um parental rights are being

terminated. Um and so they're kind of treated like a death penalty case. And I also wrote his juvenile delinquency uh orders and decisions as well. Following uh my time as a law clerk, I was in private practice for a little over 12 and a half years as a family law attorney. Uh so I uh conducted all kinds of law in terms of probate law uh juvenile law and um as a divorce attorney and a court um appointed mediator to resolve conflict in cases. I also then became an assistant prosecuting attorney down in Shelby County which is Sydney. I prosecuted um the children's services cases and I prosecuted the juvenile delinquency cases. And then approximately about seven years ago, over seven years ago, I was appointed or hired as the magistrate in Shelby County. And that's where I work today. A magistrate is essentially a non-elected judge that is hired by your elected official to uh conduct um a number of cases when the docket is simply too big for the judge to handle everything himself. So in Shelby County, I handle the entire domestic relations docket. So, I've done every single domestic relations case that's come through Shelby County in the last seven years. Uh, so I have my own courtroom, I have my own bench, and I've been conducting a courtroom and court procedure for a little over seven years, and that's what I do today. Um, and so I'm really hopeful to use some of the experience that I have. I've got over 10 years now of writing court decisions and working in the courts. Um, and I just want to bring that experience, that service to my home county and uh, work here in Agles County and hopefully I can be considered when running for judge. I know my opponent is right here in the room. That may be uncomfortable for both of us or maybe some of you. Um, but Zach and I have uh, come to an agreement that no matter what happens, um, August County is going to be well served. But I want everyone to

be informed. I want people talking about this. I want people knowing what this is because when we have a primary, essentially what's going to happen is [clears throat] in this Republican primary, we're going to choose our next judge. Um, so when it comes down to the November ballot, there's going to be one of us on that ballot. And so it's important that the community is wellinformed. It's going to take you and your friends and your family understanding how this works and making sure that people follow their civic duty to not only be informed, but actually get out and vote. Um, so thank you for your time and I hope you consider me in May. Okay. Thank you. Any questions or comments from council?

Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh, next, uh, under petition communication, this is the time for people to address council if they wish to do so. Does anyone wish to address council at this time? I don't see any hands. Under reports of city officials, the mayor's report, Mayor Herbert, I have no or [clears throat] corrections to my report. Any questions or comments for council? Next, we have the tax commissioner's report. Mr. Harris, I have nothing to add to the tax commissioner's report. Any questions or comments for council? [cough] Next, we have the director of public service safety report, Mr. Fox.

Uh, Mr. There's only a couple things that if I could please just as a reminder that we will be closed on Monday uh for the President's Day holiday. Also, we had 46 and a half hours over overtime with the last snow event uh over the weekend. And then we opened sealed bids on Thursday for the two residential lots that we were given permission to sell. The East Spring Street lots in the 800 block, if you remember, down by Cliff Feder's mower shop down there. We had a reserve set at 5,000. We received a a bid, just one for $10,100. So, we will uh subsequently award a contract to this gentleman. Unfortunately, we did not receive any official bids for the lot on 703, the where the old water tower was out in Villanova. I think it's at the 703 in West Drive. Um it's a nice lot. We did not get any official bids. We had a reserve set at 7,500. We have someone has reached out to us and they are are interested. So they've made a not an official offer yet. Um so we're hopeful uh the law director is reviewing the legislation right now to ensure that we have the ability to uh accept it because there was a reserve set. So we're we'll go through that process. Okay.

Other than that, I'll be glad to answer any questions that anyone might have. Okay. Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? Another question. Um what can you give a update what the the coordination with ODNR and the FEMA is is about on the flood map. Yeah. In engineering. Yeah. What's that mean within our city limits? Number 16 ODNR county engineer. Yes.

I I just think we don't we don't agree with with FEMA's findings. I think economy engineer our engineer I think it caught everyone by surprise so I don't know a lot more details than that other than they have contacted the state to file their objections any other questions or comments from council thank you moving on then we have reports of committees and city council solid waste Mr. Um yeah, so we met this past this last Monday. Um it was the first time we met after the external RS came in and gave their findings. Um you know, Jim and I presented our understandings and our findings based on that study. Um the results were we were pretty close on our first draft um rates that we came up with, but we got a lot of great feedback from the public. Um I know we were going to take that under consideration. There's some very valid points that were that were made. Um another update, you know, I contacted Greg. Angie provided some some more numbers to verify and uh we meet again next Tuesday. And the goal is to try and make a come to a conclusion and make a recommendation to council at the following meeting based on that that discussion at that time. So

okay, thank you. Any questions or comments from council? So about the refuge, I got the numbers and uh 2025 Our revenue was 1,122,71139. Our expenses was 1,697,89675. Differences negative 5751 18536. Say that number 2026 already in January. Say that number again please. Excuse me. Year difference.

What was your difference? 575 185 36 52 36

for 26 revenue is 61,60699 expenses were 283,95181 a difference of 222 [clears throat] 34482 so total so far we're79753018 I know at the last meeting somebody said the city does not need to make money that's an incorrect statement But um if we break even, you're going to lose services that we can't provide citywide. Um, so the rate right now that I have I'm proposing and I well we're all proposing here basically is that we're not going to approve supplementals anymore like that because we got to raise the rings $29 one saying February uh May 1st. Let's assume this we got to get it done quick. Numbers don't lie. So we have to make money with all the things.

Can you provide your numbers to Mr. who? I try to write down as fast as I can. Yeah. So you can't buy stuff on break even. You can't buy I'm aware that we have to gain enough money so when the next truck goes belly up we got we got enough money in the bank to buy a new one.

Any other questions or comments from council? Does the city have a plan B if something if this doesn't go the way that they want it to? Like if we don't what if we come to an agreement of $22? Well, if we would we wouldn't recommend that because we know we can't make it. Um so there is no plan B because we cannot that utility has to sustain itself. We would be negligent and the state auditor's office would look poorly upon us if we [clears throat] ran that intentionally into the ground. If we intentionally set a rate that we knew we couldn't sustain, that wouldn't be a favorable thing for us.

State auditor would come into the city and they would take over looking at the books. So, you don't want that. And again, 20 $29 is only for two years. Yeah. It's never going to get lower than that because you lose weight. So, it's probably going to be an increase in two years. [clears throat] Any other questions or comments from council? Mr. Harris. Yes.

Um, I know we had talked about it as an extra. Are we thinking about charging to pick up a second to know they buy the second toer? It wasn't mentioned in the last meeting, but are we looking at charging for that? Currently, we do. We What is his current charge? It's the same. It's the same. It's the same. Oh, $9.95 for Okay. Yeah. So, the the first coder is free. The second to purchase, and then they pay the additional cost. So, you pay $9.95 for the first and 99. And they're told that that that fee is there regardless if they set out one to two because our folks Well, yeah. You can't distinguish between them. No. [clears throat]

So, are we giving any consideration? Would that be the same on this new one that a second toer would be whatever our new fee was going to be or would it be a reduced rate for a second? If the fee was higher, we could reduce that second toer. Okay. Yeah. And then along that same line, does the city still offer dumpsters to residents if they need it for like a project or to clean out something?

Yes. uh cons what's the price rate on that? Would that be something along the same line as a one-time pickup at a commercial, once a week pickup at a commercial? I I don't think that would be cost effective for the homeowner. Uh we'd rather not people keep trash around for a month or two before they decide to throw it away. That's why we have the required pickup. We want to give them the opportunity [clears throat] to get rid of their trash weekly. So we But let's say they're doing a construction. Oh, sure. Yes. So what would we charge or come up with that charge for that? What's what's the standard dumpster at two yard? They have we have a one yard, one and a half, a two, four to six. So it depends on the job, but we would supply that. Yes.

But like that would that be what fee would that be? Like the a onetime pickup for a commercial fee? [clears throat] I I'd have to look it up, Dave. I don't remember off the top of my head. It should be on our website, though. Okay. Yeah. I didn't look that far. I couldn't find it. So yes, if you're doing a reconstruction project at home and you need a sixyard dumpster for a week or two, we would still provide that. You call, we set it where you ask us to set it. If it's on the road, you have to apply for a permit. Uh because it's on the road. If it's on your property, you don't need a permit. Um and then once you're ready for it to be picked up, you would call us. We pick it up. Is that a Do those fees need to be set in with this ordinance or we we will we will look at those. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Primarily right now we're just looking at the residential cost of the commercial dumpsters. It was just something was asked of me. I thought I'll see you do that. Yes. Okay.

And then we're not looking at uh I guess uh I know they discussed about a senior discount whatever that is. We we we we we stepping aside the 48 gallon discount or we talked about it being cheaper because it was less garbage. Would you combine the two together? Maybe that would be very complicated as far as building. The the folks that got the 48 are the ones that requested it because they felt like they couldn't handle the bigger one or believe it or not, a lot of them said, "I just don't have the space for it in my garage. I'd like a smaller one. My tools hang here. I want the toer to go underneath it." So it wasn't about how much could go in it. They wanted a smaller dumpster because it fit into their garage better.

Okay. And so the cost is the same. Okay. Yes. Okay. I think [clears throat] for uh for me we need the rate increase. I fully expect that and I fully support this. Mhm. Whatever the committee comes up with, I'm going to suggest that in the body of the ordinance, we review it in two years to make sure we've guessed the right number on that. Oh, absolutely.

And to let everyone know, I'm all for this because the law says we have to have it. Now, when my kids were home, it was two garbage cans a week. Every week, no offense. Sometimes two garbage cans and a few bags. Now, it takes two, three, sometimes four weeks for my wife and I to put fill a 30 gallon bag. I know I'm taking it on the chin. I mean, don't disagree at all. It's trying to make sure we right [cough] [clears throat] first try.

Yeah, but I I think we need to look at it more closely. Uh, I will come right out and say I've talked to our law director about maybe an ordinance now with uh with the new electronic calendars mandate a review every five years of our four major utilities. I do this now on my calendar. I have a doctor's appointment every five years. I just put it out there and it it reminds me I don't want to see the city having to go through this again. It's It really hurts the people when you have to do it all at once.

Yeah. Any other questions or comment? Mr. Mer Greg, I know we had to move pretty quick when the truck and the towers kind of conversation [clears throat] came up and was being implemented. Did in advance of that and I don't recall this so I if I should know it I apologize but did we do any kind of rate study by from calling Rumkeys or Waste Management or any of those local places to see what it would cost us to go privatized with those?

No Bob because we we never considered privatizing. We we talked about it with WWalk went through their ordeal. We heard a lot of the things that they didn't like because they came they became very they came very close to doing it. I believe they actually started to sell some of their equipment and then the private companies it was the customer service. Our customer service is second to none and I think our community would be very upset and again it's nothing against these private haulers but they're not going to compete with with our folks. Cory Stoker and his folks do a wonderful job with this. Um and so it was never considered real strongly. We heard that we heard the complaints from Wpock. I shared with you the story with Fan Word how they are privatized. They didn't like it. The people didn't like it. There were tons of problems and they wanted to know how we did it so they could get out from underneath it. The only time it was kind of considered was during CO when postco we had a very difficult time uh finding people who wanted to work. It's better now, but it was very challenging back then. um and we just couldn't find them to work and so we had general services that was really backfilling these the refuge department. So other than that we never really strongly considered it and we don't now the administration and the mayor agrees we don't support privatizing it because we know the customer service will not be there from what our customers are are used to. [clears throat]

Doug, my next my next question is going to be toward towards you. Uh you your proposed rate of the $29 Does that because my concern has been as I've listened to the meetings that we were getting these different numbers in regards to um what the rate should be from um from the committee members having a conversation about it from the professional telling us what they thought it should be. Actually two different professionals. Um, and my thought was that we need to figure out what our annual shortfall is in that in that fund. Plus, knowing that we have to make some savings of some money to put a truck, you know, amount in there. We know it's not going to be able to put enough in there to buy one truck a year, but we got to be projecting down four or five years down that we're going to be have money to when that next truck comes due to be gone.

A truck. That's that's part of the issue, Bob, is that the difference in the studies were the vehicles. It's

we're guessing how long they're going to last. The first the first study had them set at 5 years. Uh the second study she says, "I don't think it's wise to plan on five years. If they last five years, great, but you should have the money on hand." And that's the big unknown in there. And and we've all talked about this. We we just don't know how long these are going to last. We have four rear load trucks that we use for the for the dumpsters. We have a brand new one. Our backup should be a 2017, but we have a 2012 that we use because a 2017 is very unreliable. Our backup has two backups because they're that bad a shape. So, as far as the the automated trucks, we're in good shape. They're both they're both 24s. Um the recycling truck, we have a 2025 and a 2005. The 2005 is actually in very good shape. We were very fortunate to find it and we bought it up quickly. It's the rear load. We have four of them. We had 25, 2017, a 2012, and 2008 because they're in such bad shape. So that's the big unknown throughout these studies is how often and and the mayor and I we've racked our brains over how long can we make these things last. We will get as much life out of these vehicles as we can. But that's the unknown. The rest of them we can we can get those numbers very close from year to year to year to year. It's that vehicle that it's just unknown. You're you're asking us to guess and we just don't know what the answer is. That's not quite my question, but I understand that. My question is what do we need to and does $29 cover enough to keep that fund solvent to get us to a close to zero for each year for the first two years? I mean, yes, without a truck involved in it, it was $29 to get us there. So my next question is because of the fact that we

all know that okay you got to save for a rainy day by putting money in there. You just can't run it at zero and say this is great for keeping the fund zero but if next year we need a truck. We need $400,000 in there on top of our $29 a month for everybody. Does is that going to have enough in there to cover that if if in fact that's what happens next year? I'm not I'm not a foreseeer. I'm not expecting you guys to know that either because trucks are trucks, they're going to go when they go. But I guess my thought was when we were looking at $27, $29, $32, $37. What I never heard in the conversations was what is the exact number of what we're short for the year from the budget and what's it going to take to get us to that number and then also save some money for a trucks. So what time five years comes if that's when the next truck and I know it's not going to be five years but it could be next year it could be the next year it could be next year but if we're not saving something towards it we're not going to have it there. I mean, and and the thing is you all get report every month that shows receipts to date and dispersements. If you're not looking at that, I can't I was to say, but it gives it every month.

I guess that's what I'm asking. Is $29 going to get us there for these first few years? I hope so. Yes. Yes, it get us there. But are we going to have enough to buy a $400,000 truck or whatever it is? If we didn't need a truck right now, you could probably get away with air's number. That is the truck that we need right now. We're on a borrowed time with our three spares. So the 29 for the next two years could get us through this through this two window with the potential of a truck coming up. I believe so. Yes. Thank you. That was my question. Then after the the two years that we can revisit it and we'll see if we need to have more added to it for the next to go again. You know that I mean

the truck's going to go up. I mean the trucks are going to go up every year. Fences are going to go up. So that's that revenue is not going to go up much. So I think that that covers pretty much think that covers the numbers. Good. Good. Thank you. Yes.

Do you know how many residents we gain or lose every year on average? No, we do have some snowbirds that discontinue the service while they go, but it's probably less than 50. Um, I think we pretty much stay right around 3,400. Uh, that's in town and out of town. Um, it's hard to say right now because we just cut a couple hundred from the outside. Um, but we do we do lose some that that that go to Florida um in the winter time. Um, and then we have so I talked with a lady that came in Friday, um, who has our service that's new to the area and she said, "I picked you guys even though you're going your rates are going up because you're going to be cheaper than the other ones." So, uh, they're new to the area. We have a list right now. I think there's 10 or 12 people Angie talked to us about. They're waiting to see how this flushes out before they pick a service. that live outside of the city. So, I don't know the exact number how many we pick up, but we could we could probably get close to that, but it's not an exact number, but we could get we could get you something. Any other questions or comments from council? Okay. Thank you, sir. Moving on. [clears throat] We have the readings, ordinance, and resolutions. We have no third readings, nor do we have any second readings. to new legislation. We have ordinance number 202601. May I have a motion to read, please? Mr. Mr. Fitzgerald, I'll vote to read, please.

Oh, yes. Ordinance 202601, an emergency ordinance authorizing the director of public service and safety to contract with PCAT LLC for lime sludge removal without the taking of official bids. This is an annual thing. Um, this is a little different. I will let Mr. Kyle speak to this, but we do we do contract with patch a lot. This is a a little different, a little bigger number, so he's prepared to talk about it.

Yes. So, what we got is two line south. We line plant. uh we use lime to do it. So we generate a lot of lime that needs to go to uh offload the bio solids. And right now currently we have a pond that's full and a pond that over the time have they drained it and moved some lime in try to do some dry removal and it wasn't it wasn't going as planned and it wasn't moving fast enough. So what we need to do now is get back moving in. We generated a wet sludge. We don't want to handle a dry sludge. We don't want to decant it. We just it [clears throat] ain't feasible for us. So, we have two ponds sitting there and uh we reached out with PoolCat LLC who knows our stuff, knows our fields, you know, and we will we will retain the license for it and then they'll get the permit to spread it and they'll they'll come in and they give us what they bring to the table is also they can bring a lot of a lot of fields that they can go they have multiple avenues they can go. So, they'll give us the data and we'll through our permit we can submit the permit and they give us the place to go with it. So we want to haul off of both sides wet and dry at the same time.

So you're right, if you do do it annually, we decided to be a little bit more aggressively and take a bit more out so the price is a little higher. Um we were going to request be passed at night because we can start applying this in March, just in a few weeks. Um and so it's important for us to get this on the fields before the farmers and we get it turn it under before the farmers put the crops in. Uh obviously we can't do that tonight. on the people. So on our next council meeting, we we would request that we pass their susception of rules. PCATs is local. They we've worked with them. They know what fields we have. We know what fields they use. Uh if the weather's decent, I mean, there are some guidelines and restrictions from the EPA that we have to follow. But if the conditions are right, they can they can respond pretty quickly and get this done for us.

Okay. I remember they they seem to come up about this time every year or so. Yeah. I think maybe it's March 1st or maybe it's the middle of March. we can start making field applications and that's what we want to be ready for. Okay. Any other questions or comments from council? Yeah, I am. I have. Yeah. So, you mentioned a couple ponds that you need to get cleaned out. Is that what this is for only? Just it's this is limited.

This is to work on those two ponds. There's two there's two uh lime sledge lagoons out there and one is currently about it's it's probably half capacity of dry line which they have pulled it they pulled all the water out of it so we can't offload our sludge into it. So that one is no utility to us. The other one is getting close to peak capacity, which is why we want to pull out of both of them. Sure. To be able to get to get back into operation on both sides so we can get into a one year this pond, next year haul this pond. We want to get into a rotation. Okay. So, it is only for that task. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah. You said close to peak capacity. Is that like a month or two out? How how close is that to top off? Uh it it's probably we put some extra boards in it. So we're at our 12 foot max and I mean it if we can go if we can get I don't think we'll get a year. I think we're 6 months. We don't what we don't want to do is on our NPDS is violate and short circuit and start blowing solids. Mhm. So if we if we start to blow solids is when we're going to get trouble. So right now we retain it. We're putting it on the south end. We pull all the water out north end. So we we've got a little bit of time [cough] to take out and drive around.

It is actually pretty interesting if if you take your bump on it. It is pretty interesting to see. Our next meeting is in two weeks. So that's yeah, like I said, I think we can go probably six months. I just don't want to I don't want to put gas with ice. Ice brings a smaller capacity of settle. Yeah. [snorts] The way we this operates, you should have the okay in two weeks. It's it's unlikely that Mr. Chrisman's seat will be filled by then. So, I would encourage everyone to attend if possible. I will let I will let them know. What's the typical cost? This is not to exceed I believe 109,000. No, 74.

What's that? 74 per ball. Yeah. Um pool sides.

Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. We're on legislation. Any other questions or comments from council? Okay. Next, we have ordinance 202602. May I have a motion to read, please? Mr. Luns, Mr. Buff, council vote to read, please. [cough] All yeses. Ordinance 20262, an emergency ordinance authorizing a contract for the restoration of the municipal swimming pool leisure slide and playstation structures without the taking of bids. Mr. Fox,

I I will again defer to Mr. How. I know it's seems odd to think about swimming pools right now, but we need to move sooner than later. So, I'll turn it over to

Yes. What we got out there is two uh in our leisure pool. We got two. We got kitty structure and a slide. Uh I believe it was like 14 or 15. Our slide took some wind damage. They lift up one of our umbrellas, hit one of our slide sections. We had to repair at the time, but some of that gel coat has come off. Uh we reached out to several people to and this has been an ongoing reach out. This has been a two to three year project. reach out to get somebody in here to go through paint it and they're going to they're going to sand blast it and paint it and then uh with all the all the metal structure and then the slide they're going to redo the inside and the outside surfaces of the slide and then also the play that's out in the middle and we all know that that that pool sits in the worst environment nine months a year empty and then it goes in the second worst with chlorine water. So in order to buy some time out of the life of the structure, we want to get it in and get it refaced. So we rush out to several people over the last couple years and this company has showed interest in that. So with them showing interest, they they put us they they offered us a contract and then in order to get it going to get get us onto the schedule, they need 25% down to buy the materials. So once they get 25% in, they will lock us in and we'll get a time. We have a short time frame from the time the weather is fit to paint till we open the pool and they're they can meet that time frame. Okay.

Any questions or comments? Yes. So again, we'll at the next council meeting requested we pass suspension rules. Understand? Any questions or comments from council?

Okay. under schedule for closing. I request the street to sidewalk committee meeting Tuesday, February 17th at 5:15. Mr. Fur's not here. I checked with him and he's okay with that. And then we have a request for saw waste committee meeting Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 around 5:45. I don't know how long that streets and sidewalks going. He's good at industry. Okay. Uh also Mr. Kristo is retiring from council. Uh he uh there was tragedy in the family some time ago. He ended up inheriting a house in Newman. So he and his wife has moved into agreement and as such he is having to resign some council. Uh, with that, since Mr. Chrisman was on the solid waste, I have asked Mr. Bub joint to be on solid waste at least for the time being until we can get this thing figured out. Uh, he has the numbers. He's been involved before and Mr. B has graciously said, "Yeah, he can."

And with that said, uh, Mr. Christen is going to retire to February 10th. So may I have a motion to excuse Mr. Aquaro and Mr. Chrisman at this time? All those excuse him all yeses. Is there anything else to come before council? Mr. B. Motion to adjurnn. Motion to Mr. B. Second. I'll vote to please.

Just couldn't wait till it was over. [laughter] Just couldn't wait till it was over. I know. But we were almost done. Well,